The police of Nice, France were somewhat embarrassed this morning, sheepishly admitting to a clamouring throng of reporters in a small room of uncomfortable chairs, that they had made an error in earlier reports of the recovery of a stolen masterpiece.
The big, pretty picture done in the Rembrandt style though not a by Rembrandt, L'Enfant a la bulle de savon - or "Child With Soap Bubble" in people talk - was indeed found and two men involved where arrested. What had been so neatly glazed over, like an absurdly fattening pastry, was that one of the men in question was a custodian at Musee Municipal d'art et d'historie - the the museum from which the painting was stolen - and the purloined piece of art had been hidden for the past fifteen years in a janitor's closet at the museum, behind a shelf of cleaning products. The brass frame looked lovely.
